Your basket will timeout in Checkout
Gold
£  /oz
 
$  /oz
 
  /oz
 
Silver
£  /oz
 
$  /oz
 
  /oz
 
Platinum
£  /oz
 
$  /oz
 
  /oz
 
Palladium
£  /oz
 
$  /oz
 
  /oz
 
Bitcoin
$  
 
Your session has timed out
refresh session

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: Top 20 Gold Producing Nations See Small Gain in Output in 2016

This week sees the publication of a series of detailed reports on gold supply and demand.  There are some differences likely – I have only seen one of them in detail so far – that is Metals Focus’ Gold Focus 2017 and for those interested I reproduce the table of the World’s Top 20 gold producing nations in 2016 as assessed by the Metal Focus analysts.  According to Metals Focus global production of new mined gold grew by 1.1% in 2016 a growth matched almost exactly by that among the Top 20 countries – a slightly smaller increase than the 2.2% increase suggested by the CPM Group which I wrote about on Monday using information gleaned from Group founder Jeff Christian in an email – see Peak Gold: Not there yet! – CPM Group.  I don’t yet have sight of their full report.

Table 1.  Top 20 Gold Producing Nations 2015/2016 (Tonnes)

Rank

Country

2015 Output

20 16 Output

%  Change

1

China

460.3

463.7

+1%

2

Australia

279.2

287.3

+3%

3

Russia

268.5

274.4

+2%

4

USA

215.5

225.7

+5%

5

Peru

170.6

166.0

-3%

6

South Africa

165.1

165.6

-

7

Canada

157.7

162.1

+3%

8

Mexico

131.7

128.4

-2%

9

Indonesia

114.2

109.5

-4%

10

Brazil

95.4

96.8

+1%

11

Ghana

95.4

95.6

-

12

Uzbekistan

85.5

86.7

+1%

13

Papua New Guinea

58.1

60.4

+4%

14

Argentina

63.8

59.6

-7%

15

Tanzania

53.2

55.3

+4%

16

Kazakhstan

51.0

52.6

+3%

17

Colombia

49.2

51.8

+5%

18

Mali

49.2

50.1

+2%

19

Burkina Faso

38.6

41.6

+8%

20

Chile

42.5

40.7

-4%

 

Others

57.5

58.1

+1%

 

Total

3,220.2

3,255.4

+1%

Source: Metals Focus

The third major analytical report from GFMS is probably due out tomorrow and is likely to show broadly the same figures give or take a tonne or two for some countries.

Similarly to CPM Group, which anticipates a 500,000 ounce addition to global new mine supply in 2017, Metals Focus also expects  that mine production will again edge higher in 2017, marking the ninth consecutive year of growth. That said, the consultancy notes that it feels the year-on-year increase is only anticipated to be marginal, and the near-term outlook for mine supply is more one of equilibrium, as gains from the project pipeline are balanced by ongoing declines at more mature operations.  It does not go as far as CPM in predicting an actual production decline beyond 2017, but the implication is there that peak gold will be reached during the current year and thereafter global new mined gold output is likely to be flat, at the very least, and probably be falling by the end of the decade, although perhaps not as fast as some commentators have been suggesting.

30 Mar 2017 | Categories: Gold

Send a message

Can we help?-

We are online Mon-Fri between 9am-5pm. Please leave a message and we'll get back to you.

Our showroom is also open Mon-Fri between 9am-5pm at 54 St James's Street, London, SW1A 1JT.

Contact us on +442078710532.

Many thanks for your time, we will be in touch where appropriate.

Close